Running for the Mountains

Feb 17, 2024

1h 18m

★ 6.0

Overview

RUNNING FOR THE MOUNTAINS digs into West Virginia's history of 'patriotic sacrifice,' unearthing veins of dark money and dirty politics. The film tracks grassroots candidates and ordinary citizens' attempts to save their land, water, homes, and communities - calling out the pro-extraction politicians enabling destruction, including Senator Joe Manchin and his likely replacement, coal baron Governor Jim Justice. Appalachia is the proverbial canary in a coal mine; pay attention or pay the price.

Genres

Documentary

Running for the Mountains Trailers

Cast

Self

Charlotte Pritt

Examines the intergenerational impact of addiction by chronicling the love, labor, loss, and uncertainty of one woman’s struggle to live a life of sobriety. Weaving together moments of glee, fulfillment, acceptance, sorrow, and disappointment, this documentary takes an intimate look at the bonds that hold one family together and a disease that threatens to tear them apart.

5.5

The Mothman of Point Pleasant

May 25, 2017

Learn the terrifying, true story about thirteen months that changed history! In November of 1966 a car full of kids encountered a creature unlike anything they'd ever seen before. In the weeks and months to follow, the monster – now known as The Mothman – was sighted again and again on country roads and around the state of West Virginia.

6.7

The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia

Apr 1, 2009

Produced by Johnny Knoxville and Jeff Tremaine for MTV and Dickhouse Productions, The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia is a documentary about the renowned West Virginia outlaw Jesco White and his eccentric backwoods family. In addition to getting in trouble with the law, the Whites, who live deep within Appalachia, uphold a time-honored dancing style, even as they contend with poverty, drugs and other issues. Alternately humorous and sad, the movie is an unflinching look at life on the criminal margins of rural mountain culture.

7.7

The Devil and Daniel Johnston

Mar 31, 2006

This 2005 documentary film chronicles the life of Daniel Johnston, a manic-depressive genius singer/songwriter/artist, from childhood up to the present, with an emphasis on his mental illness and how it manifested itself in demonic self-obsession.

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0.0

The Children Must Learn

Jan 1, 1940

Documentary profiling an Appalachian farming family struggling to scrape out a living. Linking education and economic development, The Children Must Learn suggests that better schooling, especially in agricultural techniques, would bring improvement.

7.2

Rand University

Nov 11, 2014

Randy Moss has long been an enigma known for his brilliance on the football field and his problems off it. Sometimes there's even been an intersection of those two qualities. "Rand University" gets to that crossing by going back to where he came from - Rand, West Virginia - and exploring what almost derailed him before he ever became nationally known for his extraordinary abilities as a wide receiver.

5.0

FLATWOODS

Apr 5, 2022

A documentary filmmaker uncovers an alien conspiracy in Flatwoods, West Virginia.

0.0

Trouble Behind

Dec 18, 1991

During World War I, African-Americans worked on the railroad near Corbin, Kentucky. When whites returned from the war, there was conflict. Whites sought their former jobs and positions in the community. In 1919, a race riot occurred. Whites put the African-Americans on railroad cars and ran them out of town. In Trouble Behind, members of the Corbin community speak out on the issue. The filmmakers also interview former members of the Corbin, which at the time of filming had only one black family. Some Corbin residents express confusion as to why African-Americans don't move back. Others openly use racial epithets. Some young adults seem troubled by the racism, past and present. Others don't.

8.0

The Appalachians

Jan 22, 2005

Follows the 300 year history of the Appalachian people with interviews by scholars, musicians and writers.

0.0

Whispers From Space

Mar 23, 1995

A documentary noir about flying saucers, West Virginia and a man caught in the middle.

7.5

King Coal

Aug 11, 2023

The cultural roots of coal continue to permeate the rituals of daily life in Appalachia even as its economic power wanes. The journey of a coal miner’s daughter exploring the region’s dreams and myths, untangling the pain and beauty, as her community sits on the brink of massive change.

0.0

Racing the Storm

Apr 16, 2025

Defending champions of the Master's league in the US Adventure Racing Nationals, team Odyssey sets out on the thirty hour race while facing ruthless weather conditions.

0.0

The Curse and the Jubilee

Mar 13, 2018

An intimate, arresting portrait of the cursed Appalachian mining town of Ivanhoe, Virginia. The film captures the town as it prepares for the annual Jubilee, a wild 4th of July celebration where families and neighbors let loose and triumph over daily hardships, industrial abandonment, and race.

1.0

Search for the Mothman

Jun 4, 2002

"Search For The Mothman" is a documentary that explores the unusual disturbances, odd sightings, bizarre occurrences, and strange eyewitness reports connected to a creature known as the "Mothman" (first sighted in the Point Pleasant, West Virginia area in the sixties). Strangely, the sightings and disturbances seemed to reach a peak with several area residents sharing the same nightmare of a river disaster. On December 15, 1967, the Silver Bridge - spanning the Ohio River between Point Pleasant and Gallipolis, Ohio - collapsed into the frigid water (sending 46 people to their deaths). Many of those who lost their lives had reported seeing the Mothman. Perhaps most disturbing, there were no reported sightings after the bridge accident.

5.8

American Hollow

May 26, 1999

This documentary follows the lives of the Bowling family as they fight to survive in dirt-poor Appalachia. Matriarch Iree has given birth to 13 children, but only two have left to seek better lives in Ohio while the rest have married and started their own impoverished families near home. Uneducated and unskilled, all are unemployed, and domestic violence and alcoholism pose serious problems. The filmmakers explore the family's relationships through interviews and footage of their daily lives.

10.0

The End of an Old Song

Jun 1, 1969

John Cohen, founding member of the ‘50s folk troupe the New Lost City Ramblers, started making films in order to bring together the two disciplines he was heavily active in: music and photography. The End of an Old Song brings us to North Carolina, and demonstrates the power of old English ballads sung with gusto while soused in a saloon.

7.0

Hillbilly

May 19, 2018

A documentary that examines the cultural stereotype of the people of Appalachia and how that has affected America's relationship with its rural communities.

6.0

Portraits and Dreams

Jun 18, 2020

Revisit photographs created by Kentucky school children in the 1970s and the place where their photos were made. Photographer and artist Wendy Ewald, who guided the students in making their visionary photographs, returns to Kentucky and learns how the lives and visions of her former students have changed.

0.0

Tradition

Jan 1, 1973

Whiskey-making, one of the oldest traditions in the mountains, has been illegal since the end of the 18th century. Tradition is a portrait of Appalachian moonshiner Logan Adams, who began practicing his trade as a boy because “back then there wasn’t any jobs…about like now.” Adams discusses his vocation and why he continues to make whiskey despite having served a string of jail sentences for the practice. Adams’ story and family interviews are intercut with a federal revenue agent who describes the methods used by law enforcement agents to apprehend moonshiners. The film concludes with a tour by Adams of his still as he describes the whiskey-making process. This film will be of interest to anyone interested in moonshining, the economic and traditional forces that motivate illegal whiskey making, the law and its penalties, as well as anyone interested in what a practice long stereotyped by outsiders really entails.

0.0

Mountain Talk

Feb 13, 2004

Mountain dialect, culture and identity are revealed by the true experts on Southern Appalachian culture--the people whose families have lived there for generations.

Running for the Mountains

Overview

Genres

Running for the Mountains Trailers